Denzel Washington’s time travel thriller is now streaming

If I could go back in time and award a film the Oscar for Best Action or Thriller of 2006, the winner would be Already seen it.

This pseudo-sci-fi thriller is directed by Tony Scott. Denzel Washington as an ATF field agent investigating a bomb attack that killed 543 people on a ferry in New Orleans. While this premise would be enough to make most action films, screenwriters Bill Marsilia and Terry Rossio layer a love story, a critique of post-9/11 surveillance, and augmented reality glasses that allow government agents to peer four days into the past through a wormhole.

Can Denzel Washington use time travel to save the woman he first met dead in the morgue? You can watch the film now on the Criterion Channel to find out!

Filmed in New Orleans a year after Hurricane Katrina and released worldwide five years after 9/11, Scott’s film reflects a half-decade of American trauma and a weakening sense of control. It’s peppered with shady sex and violence like its sister Jerry Bruckheimer films, but more brooding—as if its creators were desperate to find some meaning in their game chaos after witnessing so much real-life bloody events on the news.

The conscious (and subconscious) anxieties of action filmmakers inspire the villains they choose, the places they destroy, and the fears they provide catharsis for. Therefore, what may seem cloying or bitter when released can ripen like a fine wine. His anxiety blossoms as we move further away from the film and the events that inspired it.

This brings me back to the Oscars. Of course, the Oscars didn’t (and still don’t) have a category for Best Action or Thriller. This will probably never happen. According to many critics and viewers, action films and thrillers lack the seriousness of biopics and historical dramas. But these films often contain the same creative magic; He’s just hidden under exploding boats, oil body bags and time-warping gizmos – patiently waiting for the audience to see him.

Deja Vu is part of the Criterion Channel. Collection of films for video surveillancewhich debuted this month and contains many equally interesting thrillers, including The Truman Show, Minority Report, GattacaAnd Double body.

Already seen is streaming on Criterion Channel and is also available to stream via VOD on Amazon Video and Apple TV.